Reading Time: < 1 minute Canadian farmers contribute nearly $140-billion to the economy, says a new snapshot of the sector from AgCanada. “Despite COVID-19, the drought in Western Canada, the flood in British Columbia and other trade disruptions, the overall agriculture sector saw growth in 2021 and is expected to continue to perform well in 2022,” the department said. It […] Read more
2021 was a very robust year for Canadian ag
Tax records show decline in Alberta farmers’ income
The StatCan data isn’t easy to parse, but the trend in recent years has been downwards
Reading Time: 2 minutes Even before the pandemic and the drought, Alberta farmers — along with their Canadian counterparts — saw their incomes drop, according to the latest report from StatCan. “Farm families in Alberta earned the highest average total income nationally for a second consecutive year in 2019,” the federal agency said in a recent report. “However, their average […] Read more
Former federal agriculture minister Bob Speller, 65
Ontario MP served in Paul Martin's cabinet
A memorial will be held next week for Bob Speller, the Ontario businessman who served as Canada’s agriculture minister in the thick of the country’s BSE crisis. Speller, the MP for the southwestern Ontario riding of what’s now Haldimand-Norfolk from 1988 to 2004, died Thursday at age 65. A cause of death wasn’t given in […] Read more
B.C. again waives ag income threshold for farm properties
Some farms otherwise risked property tax reclassification
British Columbia farmers who’ve taken pandemic-induced losses in farm income will be able to keep their farm properties classified as such for another tax year. The province on Monday announced that for the second year running, it will waive the minimum farm income thresholds normally required for B.C. properties to be classified as farms for […] Read more
A great year for the bottom line of grain farmers
Farm income rose by half a billion in Alberta last year — although our neighbour did even better
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farm income in Alberta took a hefty jump last year, but nothing compared to our next-door neighbour. Net cash income rose by 15 per cent in Alberta to $3.9 billion, which is a $447-million increase from 2019. But in Saskatchewan, net cash income skyrocketed to $6.4 billion — a whopping 78 per cent increase of […] Read more
StatsCan shows 2020 farm income up significantly
Farm cash receipts were up more than expenses
Canadian farm income, no matter how it’s measured, was up a lot in 2020, data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada show. Canadian net farm income of $18.1 billion is up $4.8 billion from 2019 — a 36.5 per cent increase. Another measure — realized net farm income (RNFI) — saw farmers take in $9.9 billion, […] Read more
USDA can steer farm aid money to fight climate change, Vilsack says
Reuters — The White House wants to tap a pool of funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corp. (CCC) to support on-farm efforts to fight climate change, Tom Vilsack, President Joe Biden’s nominee to run the USDA, said Tuesday. The Depression-era program of up to $30 billion in annual funding was tapped […] Read more
Former federal ag minister Don Mazankowski, 85
Long-time Alberta Tory MP deemed a 'minister of everything'
A private memorial is planned for long-time Alberta MP Don Mazankowski, whose work in the cabinets of prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark included a stint as Canada’s minister of agriculture. Mazankowski, the MP for the east-central Alberta riding of Vegreville from 1968 to 1993, died late Tuesday at age 85, his family said […] Read more
Bibeau not considering closing AgriInvest accounts
Minister wouldn't order farmers to pull funds
Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau is not considering ordering producers to withdraw from their AgriInvest accounts. “Not in this way. All the options are on the table for the future, but I’ve never considered asking them to withdraw, to empty their accounts, to face COVID-19,” she said in an interview Friday. Bibeau had previously expressed […] Read more
India’s levy cut on lentils part of balancing act
Global markets had zero or little forewarning of decision
MarketsFarm — To Pulse Canada, the recent move by the Indian government to temporarily reduce the import levy on lentils from 30 to 10 per cent is part of a balancing act between competing interests. Greg Cherewyk, president of Pulse Canada, explained that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “looking after the needs of a politically […] Read more
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